Don't be fooled: Boston Red Sox closer Koji Uehara used to have a beard. However, given the results that have come with the razor, it seems like he's earned a pass.

The 2013 ALCS MVP against the Detroit Tigers, Uehara has emerged as one of the most surprising -- and colorful -- players on a roster that's filled with big talent and bigger characters. But what stands out the most, on top of his dominance, is his facial hair (or lack thereof).

But it wasn't always that way.

In a piece for The New York Times, David Waldstein explores Uehara's career prior to him joining the Red Sox as a free agent in 2013, and how he's gone from the No. 3 option in the bullpen to the MLB's greatest ninth-inning nightmare in a post-Mariano Rivera world while bucking the beard trend.

With the Red Sox, a team that has turned facial hair into both a locker room symbol and a Boston social movement, Uehara's clean-shaven face stands out. But believe it or not, Uehara's beard was not only around until January, it was one of the most famous in Japan.

According to Waldstein, Uehara stubbornly stuck with the beard since transitioning to the MLB as a 34-year-old rookie in 2009 now, even though "it was considered ugly and brutish by many of his friends and countrymen."

However, at the beginning of the year, Uehara had the beard shaved on national television during an appearance on the NHK network program "Best Sports."

“I just didn’t know where I was going with that beard,” Uehara said through an interpreter before Game 6 of the ALCS, according the the Times piece. “So I thought it was best to shave it off. It was a good time to do it, and I think many people were happy. They said I looked younger.”

Since then, he's stuck with the clean-shaven look -- and it's worked.

Uehara's been a revelation in the closer's spot with the Red Sox, extending his dominance to the postseason. Save for the walk-off home run he surrendered to the Tampa Bay Rays' Jose Lobaton in the ALDS, Uehara has been automatic, a far departure from his previous postseason outings.

The first MLB postseason appearance for Uehara came in the 2011 playoffs with the Texas Rangers. Uehara had been traded to Texas from the Baltimore Orioles (in exchange for some guy named Chris Davis). His first exposure to the postseason went, in a word, poorly.

Uehara made one appearance during the ALDS with the Rangers, giving up three runs and failing to record an out, putting his ERA at roughly infinity. He followed that with two appearances in the ALCS. He pitched a total of 1 1/3 innings and gave up two runs, bringing his ERA for the postseason down to a much more manageable 33.75.

Such memories, though, are a distant memory in Boston.

As the Red Sox head to their first World Series since 2007, Uehara is just one piece of a larger unit that's taken a failed, hated 2012 team and turned it into to one of the most beloved and successful and franchise history.